Sri Lankan air force strikes against rebel base, camp

AP , COLOMBO

The Sri Lankan air force bombed a rebel military base and training camp in the country's war-torn north, a military spokesman said yesterday.

The early morning aerial attack on the rebel-held town of Mullaitivu in the north inflicted heavy damage on the Tamil Tiger rebel base, military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said at a press briefing.

He gave no details about casualties but said that "there were a large number of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre at the base when the strike occurred."

There was no immediate rebel response to the military statement.

The news of the bombing follows a statement from European truce monitors that the air force has increased air strikes and spy plane activity over Tamil Tiger rebel-held areas in the north.

Combat seems to have "shifted from the east to the areas closer to Kilinochchi, the main rebel-held town in the north," the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said in its weekly media statement.

The statement said there were up to eight air strikes in northern rebel-held areas in the week from April 23 to April 29.